Curriculum Vitae for SHERRY BOSCHERT info@sherryboschert.com Contents Profile Electric Vehicles and Me Work History Journalism Awards NLGJA History Awards for Organizing Memberships Education Personal Bits PROFILE I’m a writer, a reporter, and an organizer. Not always in that order. As a medical news reporter and an environmentalist, I’m acutely aware of the negative consequences of gasoline cars and the benefits of alternative-fuel vehicles, especially plug-in cars. I’ve had four electric cars, giving me first-hand experience of the technology, its advantages, and its disadvantages. Solar panels on the roof of my home make enough electricity to power my car and the house. I look forward to the day when more cars will be driving on sunshine or wind power. I’ve published more than 2,000 articles in my 30-year career as a journalist. My first non-fiction book appeared in 2006: Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America (New Society Publishers). In the creative arts, I collaborated with a new composer on the libretto of What They Seem, a fantasy opera for adults and children that premiered in 2008 in San Francisco. For the past 15 years, I’ve devoted my off-work time to organizing the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association (www.sfeva.org) and Plug In America (www.pluginamerica.org), and volunteering in the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (www.nlgja.org) and in the Sierra Club. I began a successful 10-year campaign through NLGJA to persuade news media companies to offer domestic partner benefits. Our “Guide to Domestic Partner Benefits in the News Industry,” originally published in 1994 and twice updated, can be found on the NLGJA web site. ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND ME Plug In America (www.pluginamerica.org) – Member of steering committee, 2005-
present; current vice-president. Sierra Club California – Member of the CNRCC Climate-Energy Committee and a spokesperson on vehicle issues. San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association (www.sfeva.org) ) – Co-founder and president, 2004-2008. The SFEVA is a chapter of the national Electric Auto Association. San Francisco Solar Homes and Electric Vehicles Tour – 2005 and 2006. Organized first annual tours in San Francisco of solar-powered homes and electric vehicles, cosponsored by the Northern California Solar Energy Association (www.norcalsolar.org) and the San Francisco Department of the Environment. PV + EV = Solar Power Plus Electric Vehicles – June, 2005. Organized and co-taught a workshop on electric cars and residential solar photovoltaic systems, a community event in coordination with the United Nations World Environment Day, San Francisco. WORK HISTORY International Medical News Group, 1991-present – Bureau chief, San Francisco bureau. Reporting “news you can use” in nationally-distributed newspapers for physicians, including papers for internists, family physicians, pediatricians, ob.gyn.s, dermatologists, psychiatrists, rheumatologists, neurologists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, and others. IMNG, a division of Elsevier, is based in Rockville, Md. See www.imng.com. Times-Beacon Newspapers, Stony Brook, N.Y., 1990-1991 – Editor of two weekly community newspapers (simultaneously), the Port Times and the Village Beacon. I left the company to return to San Francisco. The New York Times, N.Y. – Freelance reporter for Long Island Weekly section, 19901991, while editing the two Times-Beacon newspapers. I was jazzed about seeing my byline in the “newspaper of record.” The Staten Island Advance, Staten Island, N.Y., 1989-1990 – Reporter covering mental health beat and general assignment stories. Daily circulation: 80,000. I liked working on a daily, but this entailed a lengthy commute due to factors in my personal life, so I left after 1 year. Record Newspapers, Port Jefferson, N.Y., 1987-1989 – Editor of weekly community newspaper, the Rocky Point-Shoreham Record. I jumped ship after the publisher ordered me not to print anything negative that the community might have to say about condominiums being proposed by the paper’s owner, John McNamara, who also was a real estate developer. McNamara later faced federal indictments for embezzlement related to his car dealerships, but never went to jail.
Freelance reporter, 1985-1987 – Freelance reporter for the San Francisco Examiner magazine, the Medical Post of Canada, Women’s Sports and Fitness magazine, International Medical Tribune Syndicate, Cardiology World News, and others. Committee for Health Rights in Central America, 1983-1985 – Media coordinator for San Francisco-based non-profit exposing the U.S. government’s role in Central American wars, and their health effects on the population. University of California, Berkeley, 1981-1983 – Half-time assistant graduate assistant in the Sociology Department while I wrote the great American novel in my spare time. (Unpublished, so far.) Royal Viking Line, 1979-1980 – Editor of daily newsletter for passengers aboard the cruise ship The Royal Viking Sky. Got my travel ya-yas out that year, for sure. When my contract ended, I spent some time traveling off the ship. ’Teen Magazine, 1978-1979 – Copy editor for national monthly magazine owned by Petersen Publishing, Los Angeles. JOURNALISM AWARDS 2003 – American Academy of Dermatology Gold Triangle Award for feature story, “Artificial Skin Just Beginning to Grow,” published in Skin and Allergy News. 1995 – Profiles in Progress Award from the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month program, shared with two other staff members at International Medical News Group’s Ob.Gyn. News for a special section on breast cancer. 1988 – New York Press Association First Place Award for General Excellence, Division Three, for the weekly paper that I edited, the Rocky Point-Shoreham Record. NLGJA HISTORY 1992-2002 – Served as national coordinator of domestic partner benefits campaign. 1996-2000 – Member, NLGJA board of directors. 1992-1996 – Founding member and president, Northern California chapter of NLGJA. AWARDS for ORGANIZING 2005 – Special Recognition from the Women’s Caucus of NLGJA for 10 years of volunteer service.
2005 – Special Award of Recognition from NLGJA’s Northern California chapter for my promotion of domestic partner benefits in the news industry. 2001 – Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Service Award for my promotion of domestic partner benefits in the news industry. 2001 – Distinguished Service Award from NLGJA for my promotion of domestic partner benefits in the news industry. 1997 – Media Visibility Award from the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association for my feature stories in IMNG papers on gay and lesbian physicians and for my promotion of domestic partner benefits in the news industry. 1997 -- Distinguished Service Award from NLGJA for my promotion of domestic partner benefits in the news industry. MEMBERSHIPS (past and present) American Solar Energy Association Electric Auto Association National Association of Science Writers National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association National Writers Union Northern California Solar Energy Association Plug In America San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Sierra Club Society of Professional Journalists EDUCATION 1976-1978: B.A. degree, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., 1978. Double major: English and Anthropology. I was among the first wave of women to integrate this formerly all-male liberal arts college. 1974-1975: Attended the University of Missouri, Columbia. 1971-1974: Gardena High School, Gardena, Calif. PERSONAL BITS My first electric vehicle (EV) was a leased 2001 Ford Th!nkCity. When Ford (and the other auto companies) canceled their electric car programs, for a brief time I drove a
converted 1980 VW Rabbit hatchback. I replaced that with my third EV, a professionally converted 1993 Ford Escort station wagon. I drove that for a year while I saved up the money to buy my current car, a Toyota RAV4-EV with plates reading, SolVolt. Actually, SolVolt mainly gets driven by Meg, my partner and soul mate of 22 years. I usually ride my bicycle, or a second battery-assisted bicycle. See the photos at www.sfeva.org. While most of my writing has been non-fiction and journalism, I’ve interspersed this with creative writing, from essays in the mainstream media to fiction and poetry on the side. In my latest creative project, I collaborated with the composer on the libretto of a new fantasy opera What They Seem, which premiered in 2008 in San Francisco.